Elementary Buddha-Recollection Samādhi

Ru Chun: After reading the section on training the manas, I tried the method of focused recollection of the Buddha. I sat cross-legged, turned the prayer beads while reciting the Buddha's name, with my eyes watching the moving beads, my ears listening to my own recitation, and my mind consciousness guarding this spot without giving rise to distracting thoughts—very focused. I recited for about 40 minutes, and afterward my head felt like it was buzzing.

Not long after, I went to sit in meditation. Shortly after sitting down, I heard my recitation of the Buddha's name, my heartbeat, and my pulse interweaving together—very clear and powerful, with rhythm, as if sounding from deep within my mind. This sound seemed to form a separate space, blocking out all other information, and it lasted for more than half an hour. Later, I felt my mind consciousness begin to intervene, and the sound disappeared. May I ask the Master: Is this the manas reciting the Buddha's name? Is this method of practice correct? Later, I wanted to continue practicing with this method, but I could not recover that state, and I don't know why.

Assessment: If one is purely focused on recollection of the Buddha, one must gather in the six faculties. What is meant by gathering in the six faculties is that the manas recites the Buddha's name while the other five faculties remain unmoving. But in your case, your hands were moving, the body faculty was moving, the eye faculty was also moving, and the ear faculty was also moving. Once the five faculties move, the manas will inevitably attend to them, dispersing attention. This requires an enormous amount of energy to maintain the manas's focus, which is very difficult; hence your meditative concentration was not deep, and later you could not recover that state. Nevertheless, your meditative concentration was still quite good—there was an initial appearance of the recollection-of-the-Buddha samādhi; it is just that the state of samādhi was not deep or sustained. Once you let go of the five faculties, the state of recollection-of-the-Buddha samādhi will deepen and become firm.

Ru Chun: I misunderstood it, thinking it meant the six consciousnesses concentrating their energy on one thing in order to lead the manas to join in together. I will make some adjustments.